My blog in 2012

As the year 2012 comes to an end people look back to see what happened this year. To somehow frame what you cannot frame we see lists appear everywhere. So why don’t I join in the fun and make some lists of my own.

A new landmark for Eindhoven: the Hovenring floating bicycle roundabout. Apparently biggest is best for a lot of people. Even though this is not what cycling in the Netherlands is about, I am glad it drew a lot of people to my blog.

The top 5 of least viewed posts in 2012:

The Tilburg – Oisterwijk intercity cycle route built in 1977 (!) is a true cycle super highway that was well ahead of its time! This is what people abroad should study! Unfortunately this was posted only on YouTube initially, in the time A View from the Cycle Path had temporarily stopped and I hadn’t started my own blog yet. So maybe because I only “back-posted” it on my own blog, it remained the least viewed post of 2012…

The day after I received the Spanish award it was frontpage news in the ‘s-Hertogenbosch paper.

Thank you for your interest in my blog. Thank you for your questions and your remarks. I really need your input to know what I should show you next or what I should explain better about cycling in the Netherlands. Please continue to be my inspiration!

Mark I love your blog– I always got giddy whenever you’d post new videos (before you started blogging). Once you started your regular blogging here, I’d eagerly try to get through your post before heading to class, which typically started one hour after you’d post your videos (and if I still had reading to do for class, I’d try to get through so I could read your post or watch the attached video before walking to class).

I’m not sure if you fully understand this, but your videos and blog posts have been game changing for advocates in the US, at least those of us in Los Angeles. You’ve shed light onto what we should aspire to when advocating for infrastructure here.

One thing I’ve been curious about is the history of Dutch intersection treatment. Obviously the Dutch have perfected how to treat intersections for cyclists now, but I imagine the free dedicated right turn and complete separation at intersections weren’t always around. How did it progress and why? The Danes seem they are still working out kinks at intersections the Dutch have managed to solve already (though oddly, in Malmö – as I’ve commented before – their intersections are treated more like the Dutch intersections despite the proximity to Copenhagen).

And if you really need inspiration for future topics (hah– like we’re the ones doing YOU a favor! ) it’d be great to learn in greater detail:

– where the Dutch use bike boxes. In the US we seem to erroneously place bike boxes as our first (and basically only) option to “help” cyclists get through intersections.

– I’m personally increasingly fascinated by the potential of advisory bike lanes on residential streets. If you could do a post highlighting where the Dutch use advisory bike lanes, how they came about or why the Dutch don’t use sharrows– that’d be awesome. In the US we are steering towards sharrows in situations the Dutch would place advisory bike lanes but I think I’m starting to understand why advisory bike lanes may be superior.

Firstly, advisory bike lanes seem to psychologically narrow the street, especially when the advisory lanes are painted a different color. In this way are superior over sharrows in that they calm the street whereas sharrows simply show where to expect cyclists without any psychological calming.

Also, advisory lanes let cyclists cycle out of the way of motorists. As I’ve realized in LA, even if a motorist is patient (which isn’t common, unfortunately) it remains subjectively uncomfortable to place oneself directly in front of the path of a motorist.

– It’d also be great (but perhaps counterintuitive) to see a post of bad Dutch bicycle infrastructure. I think I saw a clip from the Netherlands where a bus pulled into the bike lane to pick up/drop off passengers and cyclists were forced to move around the bus on the left as is common here in the US. Naturally, the street seemed pretty calm (perhaps even cobblestone) and it didn’t seem like it was a big deal but I’m sure there are examples of bad infra in the Netherlands.

Thanks for all of your posts and comments Mark. This blog is very valuable for those of us who live far away.

I am interested in how the different types of infrastructure join each other; for example, the transition from quiet streets to lanes next to busier roads and then to entirely segregated bike paths.

You have posted a lot on this subject but I also enjoy the ‘before and after’ posts which show how infrastructure has been improved over time. Even more than that, what is particularly valuable for us in the English-speaking world are images and explanations of places which have been retrofitted. That is, from next to no infrastructure to infrastructure of a good standard. We are very often still at that very early stage.

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